The Guido Kisch Collection documents the life and professional activities of Guido Kisch, teacher, researcher, and scholar in the field of Legal History. It also documents personal and to a lesser degree professional lives of some of the other members of the Kisch family, most notably his brother, Bruno Kisch, a cardiologist, and their father, Alex Kisch, who was a rabbi and a writer. The collection includes brochures, booklets, clippings, correspondence, financial documents, minutes, notes, off prints, photographs, printed materials, and writings

Guido Kisch, scholar, jurist, historian, and collector was born on January 22, 1889, in Prague, Austria-Hungary, (now Czech Republic) into a prominent family of rabbis, physicians and scholars. He was the son of Rabbi Alex Kisch and his wife Charlotte, née Polatschek. His father, Alex Kisch, was a rabbi and a writer who in the late 1870s became the first rabbi of Zurich. In 1886 Rabbi Alex Kisch succeeded Dr. Stein at the Meisel Synagogue, and became a leader of the Jewish community in Prague. Guido Kischs earlier schooling took place at the Altstädter Staatsgymnasium in Prague. He then continued his studies at the University of Prague and later at the University of Leipzig, where he studied jurisprudent, political science, history and philosophy. While at the University of Prague, between 1909 and 1912 he passed three State Examinations in Law and Political Studies required for the qualification of judge

In 1915 Kisch began his distinguished career as a teacher and scholar of legal history when he was appointed Privatdozent and became an instructor in legal history at the University of Leipzig. In 1920 he was appointed Professor Ordinarius of History of Law and Political Theory at the University of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), where he taught until 1922. In 1922 Kisch became Professor Ordinarius of History of Law and Political Theory at the University of Halle, where in 1925 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science. He held this position until 1933, when he was dismissed by the Nazi Government. After his dismissal from the University of Halle he briefly taught at the University of Prague and at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau (now Wrocaw, Poland). Unable to find a permanent academic position, Professor Kisch immigrated to the United States in 1935

After his immigration Professor Kisch settled in New York, where he taught Jewish History at the Jewish Institute of Religion/Hebrew Union College. During this period he also lectured at a number of universities in the United States as well as abroad. Among others, he was a visiting professor at Lund University, Sweden (1949, 1952-1959) and University of Basel, Switzerland (1954). He was also a research associate at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana (1953-1959), Columbia University, and briefly at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York. In 1962, he returned to Europe. He settled in Basel, Switzerland and taught at the Law School at the University of Basel

Guido Kisch was a member of several professional organizations, such as Mediaeval Academy of America, American Historical Association, International Congress of Historical Sciences, American Numismatic Society, and American Numismatic Association. Additionally, he was involved with a number of Jewish cultural and historical institutions. Most notably, Professor Kisch was a founding member of the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews, of which he was elected Honorary President in March, 1962 and also served as Vice President of the American Academy for Jewish Research (1953-1959)

Guido Kisch wrote extensively on the subjects of humanism, medieval and German jurisprudence, history and German-Jewish relations. He published over four hundred titles, including academic works, essays, articles, and reviews. Many of his articles and reviews were published in Historica Judaica, a scholarly journal that he started in 1938 and remained its editor until 1961. Before his immigration in 1935 his research was focused on the history of medieval German law. During his American period he shifted the focus of his research towards the history of German-Jewish relationship seen through the prism of the German-Jewish jurisprudence. In his later period, Guido Kisch became interested in the humanistic aspect of jurisprudence. He dedicated a number of works to explore this little known characteristic of jurisprudence

Guido Kisch remained active after retiring from his position at the Basel University. He kept close contact with scholars and students and continued writing for scholarly journals and other publications. He died in 1985, at the age of 96 in Basel, Switzerland

Additional collections of Guido Kisch's papers are available at the American Jewish Archives as well as at the Max Planck Institut fuer Europaeische Rechtsgeschichte in Frankfurt/Main (legal manuscripts and associated materials)

Guido Kisch's autobiography "Der Lebensweg eines Rechtshistorikers; Erinnerungen" is available in the LBI library (CT 6958 K58 A15)

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